Almost got scammed on eBay

[FB3783]

Hello all,

In the interest of helping the community I wanted to share my recent experience on eBay and how I almost got scammed. When you get caught up in the thrill of the hunt it makes it easy to miss minor details.

I found a stainless Submariner U serial number that appeared to be be in good condition. Pics were good and the seller said that he had box and papers but there were no pictures of those items with the listing. Also all the pics were from the same source. The seller was kind of like me, not a specialized seller, just a guy who buys and sells once in a while and had been around for a long time.

The first red flag is that in the description he said that you could message him for a buy it now price. Some sellers do this to test the market and to get the cheaper insertion fee. This was kind of popular before they had the make offer option.

This type of buy it now transaction could be problematic if the seller asks for the payment directly through a blue dot card, wire transfer, or other unsafe means. There is no protection or easy tracing for those sources. The risk could be mitigated if the seller changes the auction to a buy it now auction through eBay and allows payment through PayPal. This still could be risky because scammers will send you a fake eBay link through a message that appears to come from eBay. When you log into your PayPal account they steal your user name and password.

So I asked for a buy it now price at around 2200 hours my time and got an immediate message back saying he would offer a buy it now price of $4400 through PayPal. Pretty reasonable and close to the market price of the watch in my opinion. What is interesting about this exchange is that I'm in AZ and the seller was in VA, three hours ahead of me. So this guy is up selling his watch at 0100 hours. Another minor red flag.

When I asked for pictures of the paperwork with the serial or partial he replied quickly. I also asked for a better picture of the clasp with the date code. The date code came back to a watch made in 2009. The U serial number should be from around 1998. I asked the seller what was up with that and he said that he didn't know, he was the second owner of the watch. I thought about this and was going to see if the seller would change the auction to a buy it now but I got sidetracked and had to go into a meeting. When I got done the item was gone and I figured I missed out.

Yesterday I got a message from eBay that the account had been taken over.

So my point to the story is when you get caught up in the hunt for a watch you have to start to paying attention to seemely small inconsisticies and walk when they start to add up. Also if you don't have time to reflect on the deal then walk. eBay is an open market. You are not going to steal a watch on it. Things sell there for what they are worth within a few hundred dollars.

I have a lot experience in fraud investigations and got lucky I didn't get taken by this auction. These eBay take over frauds are extremely dangerous, especially when the seller has the watch in their possession. Basically they are using an eBay account to actually sell you an item that they may actually have they are just never going to send it.

[cop414]

Thanks for sharing Frank, everyone should take note of your story. It can be like the wild west out there.

[77T]

Not only has eBay attracted the attention of hijackers over the years, even TRF sellers are seeing an increased volume of posers trying to scam other TRF’ers in crafty ruses.

WatchOut!!! Is getting an increased volume of that compared to years ago.


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[rolexbound]

This is what I was trying to warn everyone about yesterday. I literally wrote a comprehensive thread describing the con with screenshots from one of the perpetrators paypal account.

How did the ops here respond? They got in a huff and deleted it.

And look, you almost got scammed the same way I almost did.

[rolexbound]

It was in the 'watchout section'

"Moved: Three attempts to rob me outside of ebay in two days!
rolexbound"

It was not 'moved' it was deleted for mysterious reasons know only to one or two sooks.

[rolexbound]

Take note of this story, but delete the EXACT same scenario I added yesterday. Deleting my threat was serious irresponsible.

[pilotjim]

You said "ops." Did you mean mods? Are you complaining about the moderators of the forum?

[cop414]

Originally Posted by rolexbound

It was in the 'watchout section'

"Moved: Three attempts to rob me outside of ebay in two days!
rolexbound"

It was not 'moved' it was deleted for mysterious reasons know only to one or two sooks.

It was deleted because of the quote which was laced with profanity. There was no “huff” involved.
Mystery solved.
I’m not sure what a sook is but I’m not liking your tone.

[AK797]

Stay away from ebay if possible but then only use a well known with lots of feedback seller and buy thru ebay only.

[pilotjim]

Originally Posted by cop414

It was deleted because of the quote which was laced with profanity. There was no “huff” involved.
Mystery solved.
I’m not sure what a sook is but I’m not liking your tone.

I was wondering that as well......google says it's a female crab, lol.

[rolexbound]

I could have quite easily removed the quote, I thought it was beneficial for other to have a glimpse of the types of people we are dealing with. Why dont you relist it without the quotes and screenshot if that was in fact the issue?.....................

[cop414]

Why don’t you stop insulting members and moderators?

[MonBK]

Tim

[Heartlandblaster]

I'm a fairly new member of the forum and recently had a post deleted. It was immediately followed by a PM from a moderator doing his job explaining why it was deleted. Actually was quite pleasant. I took no offense, simply modified my thread to comply with forum rules and moved on. I appreciate what the moderators do for us on these forums.

Wear your favorite watch and live life!!

[Sunny Arizona]

Everyone please play nice.

[Abdullah71601]

Originally Posted by pilotjim

I was wondering that as well......google says it's a female crab, lol.

Urban dictionary says crybaby. Seems to be of Australian origin. Good that he’s banned.

[jrs146]

And another one bites the dust... some people...


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[lapince]

If I buy a watch from a seller who doesn’t have a physical shop and a serious reputation, I meet in person, and if it is a watch easily copied, we go to an AD to get authenticity from the AD, did it for a few Pams and 1Rolex, one thing I would never ever do is buy on Ebay, so many bad stories there...

[FB3783]

eBay and PayPal actually have very good buyers protection if you stay within them. I think it is more dangerous to sell a Rolex on eBay than to buy one there.

[newbee1]

What's a sook?

Edit: Found out, it's a female crab.